The focus is on God showing himself in everyday moments. I encourage you to share your thoughts as well.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Love, Bless, Pray...for your Enemies

My dear friend Rita visiting on my birthday 2012

But I say unto you, Love
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to those who hate you, and
pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.Matthew 5:44

From
the first moment we met, I thought my new supervisor disliked me.Everyone else welcomed me to my new position,
but this person seemed stand-offish, mistrustful, and even jealous.Over the course of that year, we had several
differences of opinion which left me feeling somewhat bruised and devalued.

While I complained one day about this person’s
behavior, my friend interrupted me and asked, “Have you prayed for him?”

Her question definitely caused me pause.I had not prayed for him, but her question
made me realize that I should be doing just that.After all, we need to pray about
everything.

I
began to pray for him in earnest.Each
day I prayed for his mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.I prayed for God to bless him.

I
began to see subtle changes in our interactions.Greetings seemed sincere.I noticed he listened and seemed to appreciate what I
shared in our group meetings.The
changes were coming from both of us.By
the end of that year, the relationship had transformed into one of mutual
respect and good-will.

6 comments:

Dear Rose, thank for this reminder of calling upon prayer. It truly is our lifeline to God. Matters as you described to the smallest of needs.Thank you for your blog.Your writings are always good food for this soul of mine. I think the biggest change is in ourselves when we employ prayer.Thank you, thank you Rose.

That is such a wonderful example. I had a similar thing happen to me. As you know, we are foreigners here, and mostly, our experiences have been good. One lady, though, seemed to resent me each time I came in her little store. I continued to smile and greet her each time I entered, say "good-bye" each time I left (common courtesy here in Spain), and chit-chat a little bit each time I visited. At first, she was like an ice box. Then, she began to talk to me warmly each time I went in--until another customer came in. Then, she'd immediately treat me coldly again. Finally, we got to be such good friends that she shared things about her family with me, accepted gospel tracts from me, and treated me nicely even in front of others. It took years of prayer and smiles, but it worked. A similar thing has happened recently with my neighbors. . . after fifteen years! All of that to see the Bible's principles work. And, it's such a blessing to watch it happen. :o) Thanks for sharing! God bless you, Rose.

Hi Rose,I think this is one of the hardest things to do. Sometimes our negative thoughts about a person who dislikes us or we are having trouble relating to only feeds the negativity. Just changing our way of thinking and like you said, praying for the person has wondrous results. If it doesn't change the other person, it changes the way we perceive the situation. We never know what the other person is going through. Thanks for this post today!Eileen

Thank you Eileen for sharing your thoughts. You are so right that we never know what is going on with someone. If we did know our perspective might be different. Prayer changes things, and it changes me too. Just put it all in God's hands.

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About Me

What defines me as a person--first and foremost my relationship with Christ. Then I have to say my children. I have six children, three sons and three daughters, whom I love with all my heart. I graduated college wanting to be a writer and a stay at home mom. After my divorce, I became a teacher and the writing became a once in a while thing. I have worked in education for the last 25 years. I've served as an English teacher, French teacher, counselor and librarian. Currently, I'm an adjunct English instructor at a community college. In 2008, I started writing again. Mostly I write about God in my everyday life, how to connect faith and figure out practical applications for Scripture in daily life. God's goodness gives me strength for each day. Let's encourage one another on this blog. And, by the way, I'm a Southerner, born in Georgia, and have lived in Martinez (suburb of Augusta, GA) for the last thirty years.